North Korea notoriously restricts access to the internet for its citizens, but it does, in fact, maintain some websites which can be seen outside the country. The Internet is almost completely inaccessible in North Korea, with access only by permission and for government authorities.
North Koreans with access to a computer (people living in major cities, primarily) can reach only Kwangmyong, a closed domestic network. Kwangmyong is a custom, closed off version of the internet.
As a result, websites in North Korea use different web addresses than we’re used to, and they are unable to access
the wider internet.
“Kwangmyong” is free to access, but in a country with widespread poverty and inadequate public services like libraries, only so many citizens are logging on. Resultantly, in a country of near 25 million people, only “a few thousand “are using the walled-garden internet available. There is only one Internet Service Provider (ISP) in North Korea: Star Joint Venture.
Like the name implies, it is a joint venture between the North Korean government’s Post and Telecommunications Corporation and Thailand-based Loxley Pacific. Before 2009, the only way to access the internet in North Korea was via the satellite link to Germany.
As you might expect, the walled garden that is North Korean internet is mainly a service portal for foreigners, the North military, and citizens with the means to access it. If you need to book a flight, it will do. If you want to look up the North Korean hunger crisis of the 1990s, you’re out of luck.
There are apparently ways to access a more open internet, though they are reserved for North Korean government officials. No doubt the North Korean government does not want its citi
zenry looking online for fear of the knowledge and communications capability it would give regular people.
Without running water or electricity in many parts of North Korea, it is likely that most citizens are not aware that there is an open internet. And of course, it follows that, without running water or electricity, having a computer is a distant concern.
What is the use in owning a computer if you don’t have electricity to power it or internet to connect it to? Moreover, if you are able to get your hands on one, you’d better re
gister the device with the North Korean government.
Should you have the means to acquire a computer, the electricity to run it, the approval from North Korean government officials to use it on the internet, and the ability to sign on to the country’s single ISP, you’ve got two email options: Sili Bank, a Chinese email company, and Chesin.com. There is no Google, no Outlook, and no Yahoo.
Unless you are a foreigner of course. Koryolink provides access, via 3G cellular connection (read: not so fast), to the general internet. Like North Korea’s one ISP, Koryolink is a joint venture between the Egyptian company Global Telecom Holding and the state-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation.
The service operates in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, as well as five additional cities and on eight highways and railways. Until this year, reporters traveling to North Korea had to turn in their mobile phones at the border. But in February, the
government enabled 3G access — for foreigner visitors only.
